As nice as Google Play Music All Access is for music lovers (and it's gotten considerably nicer since essentially being merged with YouTube Music Key), the branding is a bit of a mouthful. We've been sent a series of tips that indicate that Google may shift the name sometime in the future... but don't hold out for something particularly ingenious. According to our tipster, the new name might be "Google Play Music Unlimited," as indicated way back in July of last year.

At least some of the portions of Google's support text refer to "Google Play Music Unlimited," particularly the newer email messages sent to customers. As it happens my All Access subscription was up this morning, and in the automatic alert email sent to me, Google refers to the service as "Google Play Music Unlimited." We've seen similar messages sent to readers from January at the earliest. Another user found something similar - check your own automated emails and you may see the same thing.

That's mildly interesting, but I doubt it will change some of the confusion surrounding the subscriptions to Google Play and YouTube and their intersection. And considering how long this has been running around, it's just as possible that "Unlimited" has become shorthand at Google HQ and we're seeing the effects of mildly lazy copy editing.

It sounds bad. Take out okay and you've got Google music. Google movies. Google books. It's more inviting. Even without a joyful work than play. We would then not have a 5 word title for a music subscription. Just rolls off the tongue better. Technically play music, games and movies work. It's like you're telling Google to play music. Or play a movie or play a game. But then there's play books. That sounds dumb. It's not like a football playbook. Then there's the play store. You're not telling it to play a store. I've disliked the naming since the re branding of the Android Market. I'm also not alone in this.

senor_heisenberg

No, you're not alone, but you're definitely in the minority.

kai

He is not in the minority unless you are talking about this site's visitors most of whom are die-hard android fans that will follow every step of Google.

What he is saying is that it would be more appealing, makes more sense if they opted for:
(Google Store), (Google Music), (Google Books), (Google Movies), etc.

Simplicity my friend for regular users is what matters.

hp420

Back when they changed from market to play, all i saw were hate comments. the name still sucks today, it's just that people just forgot about it stopped complaining.

"Windows is shutting down."
"Windows has encountered a problem."
"This is a Staples, not some local stationery shop!"

So basically, BRANDING SHOULD BE GRAMMATICALLY CORRECT!

/s

Shining Wing

There isn't a problem. The Google Play branding works for everything because they're all pretty much tied together (through the Play Store). They're not entirely separate from each other, so taking away the Play branding would make it seems like they are. And besides, what else are you gonna call the store? Not the Android Market, since it's not just Android anymore. Not the Google Market or Google Store, since it more or less just applies to Play services, rather than anything else Google. Ditching the Play branding would mostly just be satisfying a vocal minority, really.

Fatal1ty_93_RUS

Time for Google team to come up with a new branding then

Joris Griffioen

No, they will still be coupled by the word *Google*. Also: the integration between those things in Play is far from smooth and nice. The integration between All Access and Play Music (where you buy music, the fact I need to explain this proves my point) is crap. Then there's the facts that the "Chrome Web Store" exists and that when you get to Google Play, all the language and UI is geared towards apps, with movies, music and all that jazz tacked on in a sidebar.

Google needs to own their content, they need to own the fact that these things are multiple things under ONE umbrella: Google.

Fine, call it Play, but make it a smoother all-encompassing experience. They have *7* product groups, any proper webshop is pissing all over them.

It's just a bit weird and only makes sense in half of cases. Yes, Play Music works because you do in fact play music. Play Movies works because you can also play a movie. But when have you ever heard someone say they're going to go home and play a book? Or "Honey I'm just off to play the news stand"?

Paul Taylor

Play Books, eh? Reminds me of BlackBerry.

senor_heisenberg

Such an old ass complaint. There's nothing wrong with Play. The only people cringing are those who think too much about it.

Zsolt V

How can you call this "Apple" this, "Apple" that. What does it have to do with eating anything, especially a fruit?

davidofmidnight

Could be worse, Google could have gone the Gnome route and have gPlay, gBooks, gMovies, g+, gMail (ooops, they have those last two :))

When you add the subscription, it will be Google Play Music Unlimited. Or Play Music Unlimited.

Justin W

Because that's the locker service. Maybe they should turn into a spotify competitor and offer their library for free with ads? I think then it would be fine if they both had the same name (or tack Premium on the end of the paid sub).

Sony is shuttering that service anyway, from what I understand. They're replacing it with a Spotify-powered service called PlayStation Music.

Plus Google's service won't just be called Music Unlimited like Sony's. It'll be Google Play Music Unlimited.

jonoave

RIP Sony Music Unlimited. Now that they're shutting down MU, Google can grab the name.

solbin

thats sad. one of the things I liked about MU is that they had a video game music section that is sorely lacking on other servicse

jonoave

That's true. Through MU I discovered the soundtrack/game music for Assasin's Creed and Alice in Wonderland and a couple of others that I really liked. :(

guest222

I don't care what they call it. I will still call it Google Music, along with all the other items, Google Books, Google Movies, Google etc. It's easier and people know what you mean anyway.

Joris Griffioen

Exactly. "Google Music Unlimited" is infinitely better and more understandable. Hell, even "Google Music All Access" is pretty good, its just the word "Play" that breaks it all up and confuses the meaning.

Well the name doesn't refer to the app itself, it refers to the subscription service.

marc

well， that makes it even more confusing then.

Swanny246

Yes and no. You don't think of Spotify and Spotify Premium as two separate apps.

It all just comes down to how you promote your service.

Curtis Bond

This. When you tell someone you have Spotify, they don't ask if you have Spotify or Spotify Premium. It's just Spotify. I personally think they should drop the all access moniker altogether and just call it Google Play Music. They can officially add the premium labeling for the aubscription service, but that alone is a lot easier than adding all the extra hubaloo at the end.

jkl

Exactly! The "All Access" bit isn't the problem, it's the "Google Play Music" mouthful before it!

"Unlimited" has been used to death, "All Access" is much cooler, especially with some, you know Google, *advertising*.

Inquizitor

It's because after Gmail, Google got super lazy with their naming schemes. They just do Google [Product]. Apple has it smarter with the i-brands, so their new music service will just be iTunes Stream or something catchy whereas Google is super ham-fisted.

Fatal1ty_93_RUS

Music Unlimited sounds better than Play Music All Access, but they will certainly have legal issues with Sony since the two will literally be named to the same way

Marshall

In France , still no Songza , no youtube music key , and no youtube's video linked to music play's songs.

fari

A sane person would call it (Google Music)

A cluttered mind of a nerd would call it (Google Play Music All Access)

Zsolt V

A sane person would call it (Apple Car).

A cluttered mind of a nerd would call it (Apple CarPlay)

Jamie Andrews

But if Apple made a car, would it have Windows?

Shining Wing

They wouldn't call it just "Google Music" because Google Play Music also has a non-subscription side, the music store and the cloud upload service. And they wouldn't ditch the Play branding because all of the Google Play services are tied together through the Play Store, rather than being entirely separate.

Equal Opportunity Dork

Who has ever heard anyone specify whether they have a subscription or not when they said "I listened to it on Spotify/Pandora"? There is no need to differentiate between the free service and the sub. Anyone that uses it will figure out the difference, pretty quick.

Joseph

if they dropped the Play branding they could just drop Play from Google Play Services and call it Google services. Calling it Google Music wouldnt change how any of it works. Play is just a word they choose to use. They can just as easily choose not to use it.

Manol Chalakov

It's part of their marketing strategy...they can't just ditch it.
Plus 90% of users never actually see the Google Play Services.
On devices the app is called "Play Music" ,so if they remove the Play part it's going to be a mess especially the fact that most devices have a default Music app already installed.

Paul Taylor

Reminds me of the white-chocolate flake bar in the UK that used to be known as "Cadbury's Snow Flake". Great name, then along came a "cluttered mind of a nerd" who felt the need to rename it "Cadbury Flake Snow". And it's still called that to this day, because the nerds always win, you see?

Mine from yesterday just said Google Play Music and I was so hopeful that they were going to just go with that instead of needing a separate name for a service they provide.

Carlos Romero

I just checked my January email from the service and it indeed calls it Google Play Music Unlimited, which also seems like a mouthful at this point.

CoreRooted

Because Google Play Music All Access wasn't? LOL

StankyChikin

Do people seriously not use a service because of its branding? Wouldn't sane people use it based on how well it works over how it is named?

Stephen Cornwell

You seriously overestimate the human race.

StankyChikin

Apparently so lol

tommyjohn_45

Is it just me or am I missing something with Youtube Music Key? Aside from seeing videos available on Google Music and a tab on Youtube for music, I don't see any benefits. Thought you were supposed to be able to play youtube in the background?

miri

It probably needs to be enabled in settings.

PoisonApple31

You can play YouTube music in the background, you just need to turn it on. Settings > Background & Offline > Background Listening > Playback

Don't care what it's called as long as they don't increase the price or change the service in a bad way...

Uncle_Rico

My All Access re-upped on Saturday... the transaction also referred to itself as:
"Your subscription to Google Play Music Unlimited has renewed."

Paul Taylor

Mine has been called 'Unlimited' since 22nd December 2014.

jack

they need to add one year subscriptions !!, monthly is rather annoying

Manol Chalakov

why... it's automatic?

FrankJL

How about just gmusic dammit

Biff Wonsley

That would've made the most sense ten years ago. gMusic, gDrive, gBooks, gMaps, gEarth, but then Apple came along and went iCrazy so now gStuff would just look silly & copycatty. Now, if they instead had used Play for everything after gmail, we might associate everything Google with Play — Play Music, Play Maps, Play Books, Play Earth, etc. It's not awful.